


death by a thousand cuts

by fireaway



Category: Cloak & Dagger (TV 2018)
Genre: Mentions of Death, here is the result, i was just listening to death by a thousand cuts and thought of daggers and evita, lowkey a character study but not really?, some sleep paralysis, taylor swift reference
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-29 23:41:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20804906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireaway/pseuds/fireaway
Summary: A glimpse into Evita's mind after she loses her aunt and marries a loa.





	death by a thousand cuts

  


Evita supposes the best place to start is with a story. 

She and Tyrone were a walking cliche. A pretty cheerleader meets a handsome basketball player, and with the help of teenage hormones and the criteria for high school stereotypes, they eventually become a couple.

They did everything a couple in high school would do: sneaking into each other’s rooms, kissing underneath the bleachers, and holding hands at the back of the bus. They had fun, and it was good. But both had always known, it could never be great.

Staying true to the stereotypes, nothing in high school lasts forever, so their breakup comes to no one’s surprise. It was inevitable. 

There are many independent and dependent variables to pay attention to when determining the end of a young relationship, such as parents’ approval or superficial requirements like, _Is he tall enough?_ Other factors may include the distance between their choice of university, the natural loss of feelings where it’s nobody’s fault, or the presence of the _other person,_ resulting from cheating or otherwise. 

However, in their case, there was no preexisting box that can be checked off for the downfall of their relationship. It was more than just the other person or the natural loss of feelings. 

It was destiny.

Or in other words, it was Tandy. 

Evita curls onto her couch and lets a tear slip free from her eye. If she would have known sooner that Tyrone is one of the two in their generation’s divine pairing, she would have avoided him like the plague. Spare nothing but a mere glance in his direction in the hallways and at the basketball games. Do everything in her power not to catch feelings for someone who was destined from the start to fall in love with the golden girl. 

Tandy and Tyrone were inevitable. 

Evita never stood a chance. 

If loss is the deprivation of something and the emptiness that stays when someone leaves, she wonders why the weight feels heavier. There’s a gaping hole in her heart, an indent in the sofa cushion beside her where her aunt used to sit, and the ghost of Tyrone’s lips brushing hers as she drifts off to sleep. She has lost so much yet it’s as if something new presses against her chest, sitting on her, holding her down, preventing her from moving. Trapped, locked, she can’t fight it. 

Her eyes struggle to open, and faintly, she catches a shadow in the doorway, resembling a figure of a tall man. Dark, hazy, but frozen in place. Her mind flies to the worst: the gods have come to congratulate her now that she is married to one of them, bonded for life. Then, her mind flies to the best: Tyrone sneaks into her home for the last time, visiting her in the dead of the night. 

Suddenly, her eyes fly open, and Evita sits up, gasping for air. The pain in her chest flowers but then fades away as her eyes adjust to the darkness. Nothing but a black coat hangs on her door.

There is no shadow. There never was. 

She plants her bare feet onto the hardwood floor, needing the cool feeling to orient herself. Her skin prickles, and the light she left on in the kitchen flickers. Maybe no one was here, only sleep paralysis coming to haunt her, but the light continues to flicker ever so slightly.

Everything reminds her of Tyrone and Tandy. 

The following morning, Evita sets foot into the abandoned church that has been recently deserted by the aforementioned divine pairing who had caught the next bus out of town, headed to gods know where. Although, they are most likely hundreds of miles away from New Orleans, their energy still pulsates in this sanctuary, like the church still lives and breathes for the girl who looks like an angel and the boy who moves like a shadow. 

The irony is, this is the place where Evita’s old life had ended.

There at the altar, where she cradled wilting flowers and slid on a ring to lay down her life for Tyrone and her aunt, she died.

A wedding should symbolize a new beginning, a blinding love, a promise of a fulfilling future, but hers had been a sacrifice. An offering to the gods to save a boy who used to be hers, or more accurately, a boy who was never hers to begin with. It was a hollowing vow. She has no idea how to fill herself up again.

The memory cuts like a dagger to her chest and a slap across her face. Perhaps, this is her destiny: marrying a loa and taking up the mantle, but it was not what she wanted. For all of her days, she had never gotten what she wanted. The only exception was when she had Tyrone. Even then, it was always her destiny to lose him.

She closes her eyes.

_I couldn’t imagine my life without you. _

Her mind picks up on the spoken words between Tyrone and Tandy. 

_So if you’re staying here, so am I._

Theirs was a hallowing vow, a sacred exchange of a pair so divine. They are holy and godly and know heaven without bounds. The sole essence, the striking definition of the word destiny rests in between the joined hands of Tandy and Tyrone.

Evita cannot compete with the gods even if she wanted to. 

And she doesn’t want to. She had learned a long time ago that the gods are not to be messed with, yet even so, they ripped her aunt out of her life and crushed her budding hopes of a medical career that would allow her to help those who are sick and dying. 

Evita never thought she would have to die first to get there.

She takes the long way home, choosing to walk instead of catching the bus. This gives her a chance to fully immerse herself in the sights of New Orleans. Some windows are boarded up, sealing the fates of abandoned buildings, and still it’s as if they scream to her as she passes by, _Don’t forget me! _

Through another window, Evita catches a glimpse of a flourishing country club, white men and women alike, dining on oysters and crab beignets. Grand chandeliers hang above them from the high ceilings, and as she continues to walk, the sunlight catches the crystals through the window, and they flicker in rainbow hues. 

She passes a ballet studio, a basketball court, across the street is a glimpse of their academy, and then the hospital. New Orleans screams the names of everything she’s lost, but in the end, there is no one to blame. 

Auntie’s time had run out. 

Tyrone was more than just a cliche. 

Tandy was a walking weapon, but the daggers piercing Evita’s skin were not hers. 

This was her destiny, requiring the death of her old self by a thousand cuts. No one is to blame but the gods.

  


**Author's Note:**

> if (when!) we get a season 3, i hope everyone including evita is thriving. she deserves so much.
> 
> update: we didn’t get that season 3, rip.
> 
> say hi on tumblr: [@rockyblue](https://rockyblue.tumblr.com)


End file.
